Japan Update

I've been in Japan for 5 whole days now. I've mainly spent my time in Tokushima on the island of Shikoku with my friend Bill from Seattle. I danced in the Awa Odori Dance Festival and visited a sea turtle museum. On the bullet train back to Tokyo today I saw the Cup Noodles factory, for those fans out there, sorry no photo, I was on a bullet train it went by too fast.
I'll have more to update later once I go up Hokkaido and see more things.

silver lining

last night there was a good old tropical thunderstorm.
My Mom and I were waiting for our bus to take us home from the school. After almost 30min our bus still hadn't come, even though it typically runs every 8min. So we are trying to get a taxi and there are no taxis available, finally a nice man in a really nice car stopped to offer us a ride for pay. We negotiated a price and got in, I had quite a mangled and labored conversation with him, but a conversation nonetheless. He was really nice and we were in traffic for a long time so we figure out what each other were saying eventually. The best part was, he put this DVD on about the life of Christ and put it in English so we could watch it. He pointed to himself saying he was a Christian and asked if we were, and I said yes. We watched the video for awhile, and I learned the word for river and baptize. But I managed to take a short video of this experience on my phone, it is sideways however....because I've never used the camcorder on my phone before and I didn't know which way to hold it.

you know, this week I started loving China, it hit me as I was riding the bus to work earlier in the week and even though I still get frustrated at the school and at the gypsy cabs that try to rip me off, this car ride sealed the deal. It was a beautiful sweet 25min, in which three people connected.
The problem with loving China now, is that I don't get mad and frustrated and prejudiced at the Chinese now...I get attached, and sad for them in this awful condescending way instead.

try this on

Today I was in Walmart, purchasing wood screws and tools to help me assemble our Ikea furniture, and I walked by a product demonstration. These happen frequently, we are all familiar with the Vitamix demos at Costco on the weekends. In China there are many product demonstrations in the Walmart and Sam's Club, until today my favorite one was demonstrating how to use a mop and bucket. Today I saw a demo-girl(attractive girls in special uniforms, with head-sets and a speaker on their waist like a fanny pack to amplify their voice) demonstrating how to use the laundry hamper that came as a free gift with the purchase of a large bottle of laundry detergent. That's right. Laundry hampers are few and far between here, and demonstrating what it is used for by crumpling and putting hand-towels and socks in it and that it can be folded and put away when not in use. Oh yeah. Just another reason no one should be afraid of China taking over the world.
Step 1: Soil something.
Step 2: Place in hamper.
Step 3: Move hamper close to washing apparatus.
Step 4: Place soiled articles in washing apparatus.
Step 5: Fold hamper conveniently when not in use.
Then the process begins again.

I never knew there were five steps to using a laundry hamper.

Engrish

So I'm going to post some new photos here, both were taken and western stores in here in Shenzhen.
Everyday I see interesting English, and I should really document it better. But here are two that I had the presence of mind to snap photos of on my phone.
We all shop at Walmart, no matter how "slow food", "local only" and sustainable you are, the truth is we all shop at Walmart, whether it is because they have the stereo we want for $100 cheaper than the local store, or because they are open 24 hours, we go there some people more often than others. The Great Value brand is ubiquitous for the budget conscious and brand savvy alike. Here is a Great Value product that we should really start petitioning for in the States.

We just moved apartments, closer to the water and right across the water from Hong Kong. I'll have photos of that later. But as a result of moving we needed to make some purchases at Ikea. While ordering delivery for all the items that we bought my friend Chrizelle and I were observing the rates for Kitchen installment and were impressed that there were certain allowances on delivery:
I'm so glad our Sikh friends can receive door to door delivery.
China is really becoming quite tolerant.

Why No One Should Worry About China.

So about three weeks ago I was on the bus travelling home and I saw a normally dressed office working man speaking on his mobile phone. He repeated himself, and then repeated a motion that we all are familiar with, he moved the phone from the side of his face to in front of his face, although instead of speaking directly into the receiver he spoke directly into the speaker. I laughed to myself, thinking how much more advanced of a creature I am compared to him. The only problem is, that since I saw this man do that, I've seen many Chinese people do this, speaking directly into the speaker.
Something you have to understand about Shenzhen, where I live - is that all of Apple's mobile devices are made here in Shenzhen, also almost all the iPhone knockoffs are made here. There are many other phones made here, but not in the quantity that Apple has going on here. So regardless, this is a high-tech savvy city.
My biggest concern, or question is:
How and Why do we let all these people make the majority of our telephones, when they don't even understand how to use them properly?
One of many reasons I really don't feel like anyone in the West should be too terrified of China taking over the world.
Who we should really be worried about is India.
But that's a long topic for another day.

Crackers and Car Seats

So I haven't written in a while.
I've been busy, and I haven't had access. My parents went to the States for 3 weeks and I had to teach all of the classes at my Mom's english center, and while I did that I improved my parents apartment, I made four big trips to Ikea and would spend the nights watching the World Cup and eventually the Tour de France while putting together shelves and tidying things around the apartment.
When my Dad came home I purchased a VPN(it allows my internet connection to be protected, but more importantly it makes it look like my computer is in the US, so I can experience the freedom of the internet).
Right, so new things - I ate at a Cantonese Dim Sum place with a friend from church and I had roast pigeon, which the very idea of eating pigeon is gross to us because they are dirty street birds in America, but here they are a delicious addition to lunch. Oh man, I'm a pigeon convert, a dark rich tasting bird. Fabulous.
I got a full body massage, and when I say full body...I mean my entire body, places that I never dreamed a massage therapist would dare touch. With that graphic but necessary description out of the way, it was fabulous, it felt like a million dollars afterwards, and considering it was only 40RMB(under $6) I will probably go back again with relative frequency. It was lovely.
We had a heat wave for a couple weeks, and I'll tell you. I thought I would die. I would past out and die of heat exhaustion. We had temperatures of about 35C for two weeks, it would move between 33 and 35C but the humidity is what killed, it hovered around 85% the entire time. Even the Chinese were complaining. I've started carrying deodorant with me everywhere, and applying it every hour. The Chinese don't seem to sweat as much, which I find wholly unfair. So in order to not wreak everywhere I go, as soon as I leave the house in the morning, I'm constantly applying deodorant.
Next anecdote: I was out with a Chinese friend and she was asking if I knew anyone that would like to buy a car seat, because they aren't using it anymore, and they only had it for when they lived in Australia, but because they are required to use it here, they don't. This friend is actually very western and understands that many things the Chinese do don't make sense to westerners. However, this totally blew my mind. Just because it wasn't required, would never mean to me that I wouldn't use a car seat. As soon as she told me this, I noticed that whenever I saw small children, whether babies, toddlers etc riding in cars here, they were either in their mothers arms(usually in the front seat) or bounding around free and seatbelt-less in the back. And it occurred to me, this country spoils its children rotten for the most part, they bound around like little emperors and empresses, but when it comes to something basic, like protecting their mortal safety there is a huge disparity. Crackers here are triple wrapped to ensure they don't break enroute. But not children.
Tonight I went to Hong Kong to go to a fireside of Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, he is a General Authority in the LDS Church, and he spoke to the members of the Church in Hong Kong, it was relayed to four different locations and I watched at a satellite location. A few of us from Shenzhen were there and we spoke about it on the trip back. Elder Uchtdorf kept referring to Hong Kong as China, and though he is technically correct, Hong Kong is so different from Mainland China, and in turn Taiwan is quite different as well. We all hoped that he would be able to visit the Mainland some day and see the dramatic difference. Hong Kong and China are similar in the way that New York and Las Vegas are similar.
Either way, I enjoyed my trip and not getting stared at for an evening. I loved being in an actual church building again. I always felt like the interior of our chapels were so bland and boring. But being in one after meeting in a converted private house was really nice. The atmosphere and the feel were great.

I'll write again soon. I'll try to take more photos too, not just on my phone either.

Firsts

So this weekend was full of firsts for some of my new Chinese friends. On Sunday my Mom and I were having English conversation practice with an adult student who is relatively fluent in English, her english name is Amy. Her and one of the bilingual teachers Xaoting were talking and got onto one of my favorite topics...movies. And to my surprise I met my first two people who had never even heard of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. So we showed them some photos, and I saw their faces as they saw a lightsaber for the first time, and I demonstrated my lightsaber app on my iPod. On Monday night we had Xaoting and our Chinese tutor and her family over for Memorial Day dinner. I made BBQ pulled pork sandwiches topped with spicy slaw, potato salad, lemonade and watermelon for dessert. The pulled pork sandwiches, slaw and potato salad were a first for our Chinese guests. They really liked the potato salad, they kept eating it and we showed them the ingredients I used to make it, sour cream, mayonnaise and mustard are hard to find in China. Also for our little dinner party I got the wii to work. So it was great fun and everyone excluding me saw wii games for the first time, and almost all our chinese guests played table tennis, sword fighting, bowling, tennis, boxing etc. They really liked the boxing. My Dad had an upset stomach, but in a testament to his love and longing for comfort foods, he ate two large helpings of potato salad. During dinner we spoke about Memorial Day and why we celebrate it, and how it is the "unofficial start of summer" it was really fun, it was the first night since coming here that I didn't get a little homesick for my friends and the fun evenings I would have with them. I lived in Provo for almost three years, and I built myself quite a life there. I have to remember that when I first moved back to Provo in July 2007 that I didn't go out every night and I even had a few friends(plus I had the advantage of speaking the language that everyone there spoke). I must work harder here, first to learn the language, and second to become more self-reliant, then I can start filling my evenings with social plans. One step at a time :)